Electrochemotherapy in Metastatic Disease
Special Indications
The role of electrochemotherapy in metastatic disease concerns how the contribution of a local method to systemic disease should be defined. Symptom palliation, local control in oligometastatic disease and the possibility of an abscopal response when combined with immunotherapy are the three main research themes of this area.
27total publications
8clinical studies
8preclinical studies
4reviews
1998–2026publication span
Evidence Status by Regime
Reversible electroporation (RE-ECT)
22publications
6clinical
5preclinical
Early Clinical Evidence
1998–2026 · Near Clinical Adoption
Irreversible electroporation (IRE-ECT)
5publications
2clinical
3preclinical
Exploratory Evidence
2016–2022 · Early Research Stage
Mechanisms Reported in This Area
Terms were detected by automatic matching over publication abstracts; the figure gives the number of publications containing the term.
Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation 8
Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation 7
Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death 6
Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) 3
Immunogenic Cell Death (ICD) 3
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination 3
Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability 2
Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation 2
Electrode Geometry and Placement 2
Optimisation of Pulse Parameters 2
Apoptosis Induction 2
Antivascular Effect and Vessel Disruption 1
Study Type Distribution
Bar length is scaled to the most common study type; the percentage gives the share of the whole area. Colour marks the evidence tier of the study type, the same scale as the evidence map.
| Study type | Publications | Share within this area |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical Study | 6 | 22% |
| Retrospective Clinical Study | 1 | 4% |
| Case Series | 1 | 4% |
| Case Report | 7 | 26% |
| Review | 4 | 15% |
| Animal Study | 6 | 22% |
| In Vitro Study | 2 | 7% |
Literature Evidence Table
27 publications listed in order of evidence strength. Click a title to open the citation, mechanism and full abstract drawer.
| Regime | Publication | Year | Study type | Model | Mechanism | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reversible | Kis et al · Clin Exp Metastasis | 2025 | Clinical Study | Human | Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination | Published data on the combination of immunotherapy and electrochemotherapy (ECT) consistently indicate a benefit in tumor response, but an important question, the optimal timing for combinat… |
| Reversible | Ranieri et al · Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci | 2020 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Objective: The aim of this investigation focuses on the evaluation of the efficacy of deep-seated Electrochemotherapy (ECT) in terms of pain relief and local objective response, in pre-treat… |
| Reversible | Piccioli et al · Injury | 2017 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Introduction: Carbon fiber reinforced (CFR) implants have been proposed for the treatment of fractures or impending fractures of the long bones in the oncology patient. Aim of this study is … |
| Reversible | Kähler et al · J Dtsch Dermatol Ges | 2013 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Patients with metastatic melanoma, but also other solid tumors (e.g., lung or breast cancer), may develop cutaneous metastases in advanced stages. The goal of treatment is to alleviate sympt… |
| Reversible | Solari et al · J Surg Oncol | 2013 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background and objectives: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is technique for local control of skin metastasis. This study is primarily aimed at assessing the clinical activity of ECT in a prospecti… |
| Reversible | Farré Alegre et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | – | The entity of multivisceral primary malignancies is not very rare. The reported incidence varies between 0,7 to 4%. The aim of our study is to evaluate the incidence, treatment and prognosis… |
| Irreversible | Dai et al · J Endourol | 2021 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Introduction: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a nonthermal ablative technology that applies high-voltage short-pulse electrical current to create cellular membrane nanopores and ultima… |
| Irreversible | Underhill et al · The American Surgeon™ | 2016 | Case Series | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | cally Advanced Pelvic and Retroperitoneal Tumors Retroperitoneal and pelvic tumors include a variety of neoplasms from colorectal, bladder, ovarian, and testicular cancers to sarcomas. Appro… |
| Reversible | Fiore et al · Reports (MDPI) | 2026 | Case Report | Human | Electrode Geometry and Placement, Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Background and Clinical Significance : Bone involvement is a common and debilitating manifestation of advanced malignancies, with a substantial negative impact on patients' functional status… |
| Reversible | Karaca et al · Anticancer Drugs | 2018 | Case Report | Human | Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination | Metastatic melanoma (MM) is one of the most lethal types of cancer. Although novel immunotherapeutics have been developed recently, still, these drugs fail to save the lives of a third of MM… |
| Reversible | Klein et al · Clin Case Rep | 2017 | Case Report | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | The combination of Irreversible Electroporation and Electrochemotherapy (IRECT) was well tolerated, safe, and had antitumor activity in this case study of a patient with lymph node metastase… |
| Reversible | Gasbarrini et al · Spine (Phila Pa 1976) | 2015 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Electric Field Distribution and Modelling | Study design: Preliminary report of new antitumor treatment. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of electrochemotherapy as a novel treatment of spinal metastasis. Summary of background … |
| Reversible | Todorovic et al · Melanoma Res | 2011 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy is a local treatment combining chemotherapy and application of electric pulses to the tumour. Electrochemotherapy with bleomycin and cisplatin has shown its effectiveness… |
| Reversible | Spugnini et al · In Vivo | 2008 | Case Report | Human | – | Canine apocrine gland carcinoma is a locally aggressive neoplasm that can occasionally lead to metastatic spread, thus mimicking the behavior of their human counterpart. In this paper we des… |
| Reversible | Serša et al · Tumori | 2000 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | A metastasis of hypernephroma was treated by electrochemotherapy with bleomycin. Electrochemotherapy consists of chemotherapy followed by local application of electric pulses to the tumor in… |
| Reversible | Feddal et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2025 | Review | Human | – | Bone is the third most common site for metastases, frequently leading to skeletal-related events (SREs) such as pain, metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC), and pathological fr… |
| Reversible | Mahdavi et al · Biomedicines | 2025 | Review | Literature Analysis | Immunogenic Cell Death (ICD), Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination | Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer immunotherapy by enhancing T-cell-mediated anti-tumor responses in solid malignancies. However, their efficacy is often limited… |
| Reversible | Sersa et al · Cancer Immunol Immunother | 2015 | Review | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Systemic / Abscopal Immune Response | Electroporation is a platform technology for drug and gene delivery. When applied to cell in vitro or tissues in vivo, it leads to an increase in membrane permeability for molecules which ot… |
| Reversible | Jarm et al · Expert Rev Anticancer Ther | 2010 | Review | Human | Antivascular Effect and Vessel Disruption, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Solid tumors of various etiologies can be treated efficiently by electrochemotherapy (ECT), a combined use of electroporation (EP) and chemotherapeutic drugs, such as bleomycin and cisplatin… |
| Irreversible | Han et al · Small | 2022 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | To circumvent the limitations of conventional cancer immunotherapy, it is critical to prime antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to initiate the cancer-immune cycle. Here, the authors develop a m… |
| Irreversible | Lee et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a newly developed non-thermal ablative therapy. During the IRE procedure, the permeability of the cell membrane is irreversibly changed by application o… |
| Reversible | Josserand et al · J Control Release | 2016 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Surgery is often the first therapeutic indication in cancer. Patient survival essentially depends on the completeness of tumor resection. This is a major challenge, particularly in patients … |
| Reversible | Aurisicchio et al · Oncoimmunology | 2014 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Genetic vaccines are emerging as a powerful modality to induce T-cell responses to target tumor associated antigens (TAA). Viral or plasmid DNA or RNA vectors harbor an expression cassette e… |
| Reversible | Shibata et al · Anticancer Res | 2013 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Cancer metastasis contributes significantly to cancer mortality and is facilitated by lymphangiogenesis and angiogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factors-C and D (VEGF-C and VEGF-D) are … |
| Reversible | Orlowski et al · Anticancer Drugs | 1998 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Murine Lewis lung (3LL) tumors are characterized by the appearance of lung metastases after a regular period following their s.c. transplantation. We tested the respective efficiencies of va… |
| Reversible | Lv et al · Journal of Applied Physics | 2024 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | – | Electroporation technique induced by high-voltage pulses has been successfully used to ablate tumor cells while preserving the function of normal blood vessels. Generally, the tumor blood ve… |
| Irreversible | Qin et al · Mol Med Rep | 2016 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | The effects of irreversible electroporation (IRE) on the proliferation, migration, invasion and adhesion of human cervical cancer cell lines HeLa and SiHa were investigated in the present st… |
Limitations
The counts on this page are bounded by the scope of the source PDF archive and are not a systematic review of the area's literature. Study type and mechanism labels are derived automatically; for critical decisions consult the full texts of the publications listed. The evidence level reflects the number of publications, not their methodological quality.